22LAWS OF MARKETING

1. THE LAW OF LEADERSHIP: “It’s better to be first than it is to be better.”
a. Create a category you can be first in.
b. It’s much easier to get into the mind first than to try to convince customers you have a better product than the one that did het there first.
c. First brands tend to retain their leadership as the names often become generic.
d. Regardless of reality, people perceive first products into the mind as superior.
2. THE LAW OF THE CATEGORY: “If you can’t be first in a category, set up a new category you can be first in.”
a. Launch a new product that answers the question “first what?”
b. What category is this new product first in?
3. THE LAW OF THE MIND: “It’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.”
a. Being first in the mind is everything in marketing.
b. The mind takes precedence over the marketplace.
c. The single most wasteful marketing effort is try to change a mind-set. People don’t like to change their minds.
4. THE LAW OF PERCEPTION: “Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions.”
a. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the minds of the customers.
b. The perception is the reality. Everything else is an illusion.
c. It is what people think about the brand that makes it a winner or a loser. They believe what they want to believe.
5. THE LAW OF FOCUS: “The most powerful concept in marketing is owning a word in the prospect’s mind.”
a. Burn your way into the mind by narrowing the focus to a single word or concept.
b. The most effective words are simple and benefit-oriented, service-related, audience-related or sales-related.
c. You become stronger when you reduce the scope of your operations. You can’t stand for something if you chase after everything.
6. THE LAW OF EXCULSIVITY: “Two companies cannot own the same word in the prospect’s mind.”
a. It is futile to attempt to own the same word or position owned by your competition.
b. You can’t change people’s minds once they are made up.
c. Get into the mind first and preempt the concept.
7. THE LAW OF THE LADDER: “The strategy to use depends on which rung of the ladder you occupy.”
a. There is a hierarchy in the mind that prospects use in making decisions. Each rung has a brand name.
b. The mind is selective. It accepts data that is consistent with its product ladder in the category. Everything else is ignored.
c. There is a relationship between market share and your position on the ladder in the prospect’s mind.
d. Ensure that your marketing program deals realistically with your position in the ladder.
8. THE LAW OF DUALITY: “In the long run, every market becomes a two-brand race.”
a. The battle usually winds up between two major players, usually the old reliable and the newcomer.

b. In a maturing industry, third place is a difficult position to be in.
c. The customer believes that marketing is a battle of products. The kind of thinking keeps two brands on top. ‘They must be the best, they’re the leaders.’
9. THE LAW OF THE OPPOSITE: “If you’re shooting for second place, your strategy is determined by the leader.”
a. Whenever the leader is strong, there is an opportunity for a no.2 to turn the tables. In strength there is weakness.
b. Discover the essence of the leader and present the prospect with the opposite. Try to be different not better.
c. Present your products as the alternative to the leader.
d. The first brand that captures the concept is often able to portray its competitors as “me too’s.”
10. THE LAW OF DIVISION: “Over time, a category will divide and become two or more categories.”
a. It’s a mistake to try to take a well-known brand name and use it in another category.
b. People prefer to buy products or services from different companies whom they perceive as leaders in the category.
11. THE LAW OF PERSPECETIVE: “Marketing effects take place over an extended period of time.”
a. The long-term effects are often the exact opposite of the short-term effects.
b. There is evidence to show that sales (discounting, etc.) decrease business in the long run by educating customers not to buy at ‘regular prices’.
12. THE LAW OF LINE EXTENSION: “There is an irresistible pressure to extend the equity of the brand.”
a. Keep tightly focused on a single product that is profitable.
b. Don’t spread yourself thin over many products that lose money.
c. When you try to be all things to all people, you inevitably wind up in trouble. Standing for everything means it stands for nothing.
13. THE LAW OF SACRIFICE: “You have to give up something in order to get something.”
a. There are 3 things to sacrifice:
i. PRODUCT LINE:
1. To be successful reduce your product line. Eliminate the losers/no growth potentials.
ii. TARGET MARKET:
1. The apparent target of your marketing is not the same as the people who will actually buy your market.
iii. CONSTANT CHOICE:
1. The best way to maintain a consistent position is not to change it. Fine tune.
2. Don’t try to follow the twists and turns of the market, you’re bound to wind up off the road.
a. You must have an idea or attribute of your own to focus your effort around.
b. Seize a different attribute, dramatize its value and thus increase your sales.
a. One of the effective ways to get into the prospect’s mind is to first admit a negative (that is, widely perceived as negative) and then twist it into a positive.
14. THE LAW OF ATTRIBUTES: “For every attribute, there is an opposite effective attribute.”
15. THE LAW OF CANDOR: “When you admit a negative, the prospect will give you a positive.”

b. Every negative statement you make about yourself is instantly accepted as truth.
c. The law of candor must be used carefully and with great skill.
a. The only thing that works in marketing is the single bold stoke.
b. Most often there is only one place where a competitor is vulnerable, and that should be the focus of competition.
c. What works in marketing is the same as what works in military: the unexpected.
d. To find that singular idea or concept, marketing managers should know what’s happening in the marketplace (trenches).
a. Failure to forecast competitive reaction is major reason for marketing failures.
b. No one can predict the future with any degree of certainty. Nor should marketing plans try to.
c. Change isn’t easy, but it’s the only way to cope with an unpredictable future.
a. The brand got to the mind first - it owns a powerful attribute.
b. Don’t delegate the marketing function to underlings. Be involved, check put the market yourself- “It’s better to see once than to hear a hundred times.”
a. Ego is the enemy of successful marketing- don’t inject it in the marketing process.
b. Don’t substitute your own judgment for what the market wants.
c. When a brand is successful, the company assumes the name is the primary reason for success. The brand is successful because it was in tune with the laws of marketing.
d. It is a better strategy to recognize failure and cut your losses.
e. For a company to operate in an ideal way, it must have teamwork, esprit de corps and a self-sacrificing leader.
a. When things are going well, it doesn’t need the hype. When you need the hype, it usually means you’re in trouble.
a. A fad is short-term phenomena that might be profitable, but a fad doesn’t last long enough to do a company much good.
b. Forget fads. One way to maintain a long-term demand for a product is to never satisfy the demand.
c. The best and most profitable thing to ride in marketing is a long-term trend.
a. Marketing is a game fought in the mind of the prospect. You need money to get into the mind, and money to stay in the mind once you get there.
b. Successful marketers front-load their investment. They take no profit for 2 or 3 years as they plow all earnings into marketing to grow the business.
c. Money makes the marketing world go round. Tp be successful, you’ll have to find money you need to get those marketing wheels going.
16. THE LAW OF SINGULARITY: “In each situation, only one move will produce substantial results.”
17. THE LAW OF UNPREDICTABILITY: “Unless you write your competitors’ plan, you can’t predict the future.”
18. THE LAW OF SUCCESS: “Success often leads to arrogance, and arrogance to failure.”
19. THE LAW OF FAILURE: “failure is to be expected and accepted.”
20. THE LAW OF HYPE: “The situation is often the opposite of the way it appears in the press.”
21. THE LAW OF ACCELERATION: “Successful programs are not built on fads, their built on trends.”
22. THE LAW OF RESOURCES: “Without adequate funding, an idea won’t get off the ground.”